Session Information
26 SES 12 B, Leading Change, Leadership Standards and Educational Leadership and Networking
Paper Session
Contribution
Over the last two decades, the Chilean government has made substantial efforts to improve the quality and equity of education offered by the public system. From the year 2000 onwards, Chile´s educational reform process has extended primary efforts on developing the conditions and capacities within educational communities necessary to support and generate continuous improvement. To address the challenge of improving quality and equity in education, the Chilean government is promoting different strategies to provide effective support to schools and build capacity for improvement and change, both at local and system level. One of such strategies consists of fostering collaborative work within and between State-public schools, as a key change lever for successful reform, especially those working in vulnerable contexts. In this regard, the role played by school leaders, both within schools and in the system itself, is essential for generating organisational and cultural conditions that favour this collaboration. However, in an interdependent and highly connected social context, collaboration is not enough and needs to be supported with learning networks between schools as a strategy to mobilise ideas and good practice in the school system.
In several countries around the world, networking has been proposed as an improvement strategy based on collaboration. Networking has been highlighted as an important strategy towards promoting improvement at all levels of the school system (Wohlstetter, Malloy, Chau, & Polhemus, 2003; Ainscow, Muijs, & West, 2006). However, simply mandating that schools organize in networks does not support by itself principals' or teachers' capacities in school systems (Chapman, & Muijs, 2013). Moreover, the development of school networks may even be harmful to schools, particularly when they have no clear purpose or do not allow a sincere and effective collaboration among participants (Rincón-Gallardo & Fullan, 2016). A policy that promotes networking as a strategy for school improvement must be precise about the meaning and characteristics that networks are expected to fulfill (Muijs, 2015). Additionally, participants need to be provided, and develop, tools to make this particular structure an effective support for lateral learning.
In 2015 the Ministry of Education created the School Improvement Networks Strategy of primary and secondary public schools. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the School Improvement Networks that have been promoted by the Chilean Ministry of Education during the last two years.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ainscow, M., Muijs, D., & West, M. (2006). Collaboration as a strategy for improving schools in challenging circumstances. Improving Schools, 9(3), 192–202, doi:10.1177/1365480206069014 Chapman, C., & Muijs, D. (2013). Does school-to-school collaboration promote school improvement? A study of the impact of school federations on student outcomes. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 25(3), 351–393. doi:10.1080/09243453.2013.840319. Díaz-Gibson, J., Civís-Zaragoza, M. & Guàrdia-Olmos, O. (2014). Strengthening education through collaborative networks: leading the cultural change. School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation, 34(2), 179-200, doi: 10.1080/13632434.2013.856296. MINEDUC. (2016). Orientaciones para el apoyo técnico-pedagógico al sistema escolar. Santiago: División de Educación General, Ministerio de Educación de Chile. Muijs, D. (2015). Improving schools through collaboration: a mixed methods study of school-to-school partnerships in the primary sector, Oxford Review of Education 41(5), 563-586, doi:10.1080/03054985.2015.1047824. Rincón-Gallardo, S. & Fullan, M. (2016),Essential features of effective networks in education, Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 1(1), 5 – 22, doi:10.1108/JPCC-09-2015-0007. Wohlstetter, P., Malloy, C. L., Chau, D., & Polhemus, J. L. (2003). Improving Schools through Networks: A New Approach to Urban School Reform. Educational Policy, 17(4), 399–430. http://doi.org/10.1177/0895904803254961
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